Christmas at the Potters
by PottersCharm
Summary: A start to a few chapters about Christmas at the Potters (If James and Lily survived)
1. Chapter 1

The Potters were all sitting around a warm, crackling fire. Christmas was near and all the decorations were up. The main theme was red and gold of course. James, Lily and Harry were all proud Gryffindors. Each sat in a cosy armchair feeling happy and content. Sirius, Remus, the Weasleys and the Grangers would be joining them for Christmas and Lily was already making plans.

"Aaaah, the pleasant feeling of December" sighed James. "I remember all the Christmases we had at Hogwarts, and all the pranks, remember them Lily?"

"I remember more than I wish." replied Lily. "All the pranks you Marauders played on me just because of your obsessive crush."

"Now, now, no need to get into personal details" said James, a hint of pink lit up on his cheeks.

"Come on Dad, I think it's time for another old Hogwarts story don't you think?" asked Harry.

James was always telling Harry all sorts of stories from when he was at school, Lily would do the same. The stories always involved an arrogant James and a goody two-shoes Lily.

"Yes, I think a story would fit just perfectly." answered James. "Let me think… AAH YES! THE PERFECT ONE!" he exclaimed in excitement.

"Go on!" said Harry eagerly.

Lily rolled her eyes. "This story is going to involve me again isn't it?" she questioned.

"Well… perhaps…" replied James. "It all started with a Hogsmeade visit in December. Your mother had a lot of boys chasing after her to take her, Harry."

"One of them being you." added Lily.

"Well of course one of them was me! And here we are with a 14 year old son!" said James.

"Okay, okay just carry on!" said Harry.

"So naturally I asked your mother to come to Hogsmeade with me" continued James. "I did that every visit anyway."

"And it was extremely annoying. You seemed to be under the impression that I HAD to go with you or no one. So _**naturally**_" said Lily, mocking James "I went with someone else."

"Who?" asked Harry.

He was curious because his father's face immediately turned bright red and he looked quite annoyed, even though many years had passed.

"Sirius, of course!" replied Lily.

Harry was shocked but it did make sense. Who could annoy James more than his best mate?

"Brilliant mum!" congratulated Harry.

"Thank you, Harry. We planned the whole thing out with Sirius. He wanted to get James back for playing a prank on him. I can't quite remember what is was though." Said Lily thoughtfully.

"I _**may **_have changed his hair colour to bright pink and his eyebrows green while he was sleeping. I _**may**_ have rushed him out of our dorm so he wouldn't get a chance to look in the mirror. And I _**may**_ have let everyone laugh at him when we went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. When he finally looked at himself, his face was priceless." Explained James.

All the Potters laughed at this particular memory.

"I remember now" Lily said. "No one even told him, he only found out when he looked at his reflection on the spoon while he was eating. He spat the pumpkin juice all across the Gryffindor table."

"I wish I was there! Maybe we could use a pensieve?" asked Harry.

"Well we can't borrow Dumbledore's, if we find another one then maybe" answered Lily.

"Let me carry on… where was I? Oh yes, I remember. I had to watch Lily and Sirius all day having fun at Hogsmeade while I sat in The Three Broomsticks. I could tell they were doing it on purpose but it didn't make me feel any better. So I had to get him back, obviously." stated James.

"You did not sit in The Three Broomsticks for the whole day!" said Lily. "Wherever we went, you followed! You were glaring at us all the time! You even threw Sirius a nose-biting tea cup in Zonko's. Oh James, you were hilarious." Said Lily.

She, along with Harry were laughing hysterically at the younger James and his actions. James insisted that he should carry on with the other part of the story but was interrupted by a loud banging from the front door..

"JAMES? LILY? HARRY? IT'S ME! SIRIUS!" Sirius bellowed through the letter plate on the door.

Harry went to greet his godfather and welcomed him into the room. Lily and James also greeted him and they all settled back down.

"We were just talking about you." Said Lily casually. "About the time when we annoyed James by going to Hogsmeade together?"

Sirius immediately burst out laughing.

"I remember!" he said grinning to himself. "Oh that was the best. We should've all been fair and square because I got James back for the pink hair prank but Mr Arrogant had to play the last prank in this feud."

James smiled proudly, although he wasn't anywhere near as arrogant as before, old habits die hard.

Finally, James carried on with his story. "After that Hogsmeade day, I was focused on playing the best prank of the year on Sirius. I pretended to forgive him but it was all part of the plan." explained James. "He didn't know what was coming."

"You were a sneaky little-" started Sirius but stopped when he received a don't-even-think-about-it look from Lily.

"Let me explain the rest" carried on Sirius. "James's story seems slightly biased. After about a few weeks, on the last day of school before the Christmas holidays, James was set to play his master prank. The main aim was just to make me embarrass myself in front of the whole school."

"And it worked!" declared James.

"Well… yes, okay it did" admitted Sirius.

"Let me explain the rest from the perspective of a fellow student" said Lily.

"Everyone was in the Great Hall eating dinner when the Marauders all walked in. Everyone turned around to look at the unusual sight. James's grin looked more mischievous than usual but everyone's eyes were on Sirius. As he strolled into the hall pink feathers shot out from behind him and left a trail. But this was only the start." explained Lily.

"Oh yes, the day before I asked Lily for a popular muggle love song" remembered James. "And here comes the next part of the prank. I persuaded Sirius to go and stand next to McGonagall and talk to her. As soon as he was close enough, I used a sticking charm on his feet so he couldn't move. I also shot another spell so that whenever he started talking he would sing 'I Will Always Love You' by Whitney Houston."

"To the rest of the school it looked like Sirius was singing McGonagall love songs and sprouting pink feathers at the same time, it was hilarious" added Lily.

"I can still remember McGonagall's face, she was furious. Dumbledore seemed quite amused though. I earned myself a month's worth of detentions starting after the holidays. I was a laughing stock for the rest of that school year but I didn't mind" said Sirius.

"Wow" concluded Harry. "The Marauder era really was something wasn't it?"


	2. Chapter 2

A week before Christmas, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley came to stay over at the Potter household. They were soon to be joined by their families to celebrate all together, their parents were good friends. Lily got along well with Hermione's muggle parents as she was a muggleborn. The trio would spend their day having snowball fights, drinking hot chocolate by the fire and helping Mrs Potter around the house. As soon as James got home from his work at the Ministry with Sirius, they would play Quidditch with Harry and Ron outside. During this, Hermione would either read or help Lily in her preparations for Christmas.

On the second day of their stay, the three teenagers were sitting in front of the fire in big, cosy armchairs.

"We should go shopping for presents soon" announced Hermione. "Christmas is only a few days away now."

"Yeah, we really should" agreed Ron. "With all the siblings I have it's going to take quite a while."

"How about we go to Diagon Alley tomorrow then?" suggested Harry.

"Yes, that'll be good" replied Hermione.

The next day Hermione along with Mr and Mrs Potter were up early to go Christmas shopping. Ron and Harry were still asleep. Hermione noisily walked up the stairs and into the boys' room to wake them up.

"Wake up! Wake up!" said Hermione poking the boys with her wand.

Crookshanks climbed on top of Ron's head and started playing with his hair. In his sleep, Ron absent-mindedly started swatting through the air with his hands and mumbling under his breath.

"furry… spider… gerroff… mione… help.. arry… mione…" mumbled Ron, just audible enough for Hermione to hear.

"Ronald Weasley" announced Hermione. "If you do not wake up **this** instance I will personally summon every spider in this house and invite them into your bed" she threatened. She sounded just like Mrs Weasley.

Ron jumped out of his bed and a startled Crookshanks hissed angrily at him.

"I'm awake! I'm awake!" he said, his eyes half closed. He looked towards Harry's bed and saw he was still sleeping.

"How come he doesn't get threatened?" he said glaring at Hermione and rubbing his eyes.

"I thought I'd get the hard part out of the way first" replied Hermione coolly. She walked towards Harry's bed. "Wake up, Harry!" she said.

Harry woke up much easily than Ron and didn't seem to be as annoyed for being woken up so early. Hermione gave Ron a knowing look and walked out of the room. She could still hear Ron complaining from the corridor.

"Just get ready! We need to get there early!" she called out.

"Alright! Alright!" answered Ron. "We're coming!"

Everyone was sitting around the table having breakfast, they would soon be on their way to Diagon Alley.

"What's up with you?" asked Harry looking curiously at Ron as he poured himself some orange juice. He looked much more annoyed than usual.

"Let's just put it this way, I'm only a morning person on Christmas morning" replied Ron grumpily.

The trio spilt up in Diagon Alley to buy their presents without the others seeing. One by one they stepped into the fireplace and used the floo network to get to Diagon Alley. When they arrived, the trio spilt up in Diagon Alley to buy their presents without the others seeing. They decided to meet at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour in an hour. Individually they visited Honeydukes to buy chocolates and sweets for various people (and themselves). They also visited Quality Quidditch Supplies, Flourish and Blott's, Slug and Jigger's Apothecary, Twilfitt and Tattings and many more.

Once their Christmas shopping was done, they met back in the parlour and slumped onto the chairs.

"Blood hell, I'm exhausted" grumbled Ron.

"So am I" replied Hermione as she placed all her shopping bags on the floor.

A waitress came to take their orders. "What would you like?" she asked with a big smile on her face.

"Can I have an extra extra large chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips and chocolate sauce please" answered Ron.

"I'd like a medium vanilla and raspberry ice cream with chopped nuts please" said Hermione.

"I'll have a large vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce and sprinkles and a cherry on top please" Harry added.

The waitress jotted down the orders, nodded politely and walked away from the table.

"What a manly choice of ice cream toppings" said Ron grinning at Harry. Harry punched him playfully on the arm while Hermione burst out laughing.

After they had eaten their ice creams they went back to the Potter's and slouched on the various arm chairs.

"I-am-knackered" groaned Harry as he massaged his arms. "I didn't know Christmas shopping was so tiring, I always went with mum."

"Well, now you know" said Lily Potter from the hall way. "If you're tired then I suggest you sleep, tomorrow is going to be a very long day."

"Why what are we doing?" asked Harry.

"Buying essential Christmas stuff of course! A new tree, decoration, food, the lot!" replied Lily.

Harry and Ron moaned and slid further down into their arm chairs while Hermione laughed at them.

"Come on off to bed you two, otherwise you'll be moody as ever tomorrow morning!" said Hermione.

Little did the boys know that they would be woken up at 6 in the morning by Hermione so they could travel to the other side of the city for a new Christmas tree.


End file.
